AuthorTopic: resume question (Read 1509 times)

i am trying to de-technical my resume for law school. i've only chornicled my work experience back to 2003 (i got out of the marine corps in 03 so i just put everything i did there under 98-03) problem is i've had several jobs since then. i was a government consultant so even though i technically only worked for one company, i did so at several different government agencies, so it's kind of hard to list it all as just 03-07. i've trimmed my it down quite a bit but it's still a full page. basically i have my candidate for JD at the top, my BA under that and a full page of work history. is that too much? how did you guys handle your resumes? i mean i'm 34 just my work history from '98 on fills up more than one page. any suggestions? i'm trying to find a way to put all my military/governement stuff in one section. i mean most of what i did is in government classifed speak. it's not like anybody outside of that career field will be able to decipher it.

Since I don't know what you've done, I can't give specific suggestions for how to simplify your resume, but I think with the amount of experience you have you'd be entitled to let your work experience spill over to a second page.

I think a career counselor would be most useful in helping you reformulate your resume.

Mine is two pages, but I have a chunk at the beginning titled Professional Summary or some stupid thing like that. That is obviously going to get pulled and replace with whatever I can remember from about my ECs from college. It was 20+ years ago - I honestly can't remember the different organizations I joined, if any. It's going to be a short section. I am debating, however, whether to add that I was the activities coordinator for my daughter's fifth grade, end of elementary school dance.

I used a 2-pager when I was applying to law school - I had been out for a while, and had a lot of teaching and research experience in my field in additional to the jobs themselves.

Now that I'm applying to firms, I've cut it waaay down. Back to 1 page, and I even managed a lot of white space. Education is back on top, all of my jobs are still listed but in significantly less detail. I figured that the firms don't care about all of the minutae of my past work. It took a long time to trim it down this much, but I think it's a lot cleaner and stronger now.

I used a 2-pager when I was applying to law school - I had been out for a while, and had a lot of teaching and research experience in my field in additional to the jobs themselves.

Now that I'm applying to firms, I've cut it waaay down. Back to 1 page, and I even managed a lot of white space. Education is back on top, all of my jobs are still listed but in significantly less detail. I figured that the firms don't care about all of the minutae of my past work. It took a long time to trim it down this much, but I think it's a lot cleaner and stronger now.

Dunno if that helps...?

yeah it does thanks. i guess i was worried about having a resume full of stuff that doesn't pertain to being a lawyer but i guess it doesn't have to. that's what law school is for

I used a 2-pager when I was applying to law school - I had been out for a while, and had a lot of teaching and research experience in my field in additional to the jobs themselves.

Now that I'm applying to firms, I've cut it waaay down. Back to 1 page, and I even managed a lot of white space. Education is back on top, all of my jobs are still listed but in significantly less detail. I figured that the firms don't care about all of the minutae of my past work. It took a long time to trim it down this much, but I think it's a lot cleaner and stronger now.

Dunno if that helps...?

This is what I did. I have ten yrs WE, and got it, educ, and two volunteer positions on one page. Less detail is the key, cuz no law firm cares...

I don't have anything that pertains to law school on my resume (I'm coming from a scientific research background), and I was told by admissions people that it doesn't matter. Just include what you did that was impressive, no matter what it pertains to. Also, if you're going to go over a page, use two full pages, rather than a page and a half or so.

I don't have anything that pertains to law school on my resume (I'm coming from a scientific research background), and I was told by admissions people that it doesn't matter. Just include what you did that was impressive, no matter what it pertains to. Also, if you're going to go over a page, use two full pages, rather than a page and a half or so.

I don't have anything that pertains to law school on my resume (I'm coming from a scientific research background), and I was told by admissions people that it doesn't matter. Just include what you did that was impressive, no matter what it pertains to. Also, if you're going to go over a page, use two full pages, rather than a page and a half or so.

ok cool, i'll stick with my one pager, thanks everybody.

You may want to stick with the two-pager and show it to career services to see what they suggest. I know my career services cut mine down for me into one page instead of me having to do it myself when I had no idea what was important.